Keladry's Adventures in the Chamber of the Ordeal
by Antilles
Summary: It's Kel's turn to enter the dreaded Chamber of the Ordeal... and after witnessing Neal's reaction to the visit, she is more than a little apprehensive about it. one-shot, au


**_Keladry's Adventures in the Chamber of the Ordeal_**

**Disclaimer: everything but the plot belong to Tamora Pierce**

**A/N: I have recently re-read my draft for Neal's story, and decided to write a tad more. This time it's about Kel – as the title says. The main idea came from one of my reviewers for Neal's story, who recommended to add pink bears into it. Oh, and I took to mind the correction of Kel being a Squire during Neal's trial, so this time Neal is a knight while Kel is a Squire... fogive me for that confusion**

Keladry of Mindelan gave a mock shudder as she stepped up to the all too familiar door. Last time, the chamber predicted her to become a desk knight. But this time, it was official, unlike the time when she came barging into the room.

'Plus,' Kel reasoned silently, 'I am not turning out to be a desk knight. My lord Raoul is hardly sitting in one place.'

Satisfied with such reasoning, Kel stepped through the heavy door.

Once in the chamber, she was quite surprised to find its good ol' self being stone and walls.

'I wonder what scared Neal so much…'

She shrugged in confusion, but then things blurred around her, and she found herself in a familiar forest.

A sound of crash resounded through the place, and naturally, Kel hurried towards that sound. If anything something oculd be extremely wrong.

Kel gaped. She knew that this was supposed to be a small village near Mindelan. However, there was none – well, not anymore. Instead, there was a group of…

'Are those things… bears?' Kel thought in confusion.

They were extremely… pink. With white collars, blue tails – that is, if there were bears with rabbits tails, and orange ears.

Kel nearly laughed out loud.

'What are you thinking?' she asked silently. 'I am not afraid of multicoloured bears.'

One of the bears looked up. After swivelling his head around, he was looking straight at Kel.

'I… am… not… afraid…' Kel began silently. The bear howled a command and the group of the bears charged straight at her. '...of…multicoloured… bears! MUMMY!'

Kel dashed away from the bears, who were rather insistent.

'Oh, shit. I'm just so happy Neal can't hear me… I'd be a laughingstock for all would be knights,' Kel thought sourly as she crashed through the wood. 'If only I had my glaive…'

Forgetting to watch her surroundings, Kel ran into a tree and sat very heavily down.

'Ouch!'

Only to look up, rubbing her forehead, and stare at the stone wall of the Chamber of the Ordeal. The forest, mercifully, had vanished – as had the pack of multicoloured bears.

'Thank the gods that's over.' Kel sighed in relief, leaning back against the wall. 'Huh?' she blinked twice, spying her weapon leaning against the wall opposite to her. 'What the heck is it doing here?'

She couldn't quite fathom what happened next – one moment, her weapon was quite peacefully standing beside the wall, the next it sprouted some branches and twigs. Kel yelped silently in astonishment and lunged back, only to lose her footing and land on her behind.

'Dammit! I hate to admit it but Neal might be right,' Kel thought dimly, as the glaive straightened up and started to whistle one of the complex pattern dances she'd done way too often. 'I'm hallucinating. I'm officially nuts.'

Kel gulped as the glaive missed her by mere inches and stumbled back – only to fall into a river with a splash.

'Wait a sec… what the heck is going on? Where did the river come from?' she thought panicky.

Shaking herself off, Kel sighed and trudged up the hill. The sight that met her next was only too much. A flock of what seemed to her to be battered slices of bread /A/N: think bread-and-butterflies in Alice/ was charging at her full speed.

'ARGH!' Kel ducked, but the next slice dived for her head. Angry chattering, that sounded way too much like her sparrows, did not make it easier. Kel tried brushing the strange attack off, but one of the things she silently dubbed as morons bit her finger.

'OUCH! This is even worse than my errant griffin!' Kel shook her hand in order to stop pain. 'Man, Neal's gonna get it when – IF – I'll make it outta here in one piece!'

'For now, though, I just might become the food for the small buggers,' she thought dimly as she dodged yet another aerial attack.

'Oh, thank the Goddess it's out of the way,' Kel thought dimly, flopping down on the suddenly cold floor. 'I really, really, really don't wanna go through that again!'

She leaped up in surprise as the stone doors opened.

Sighing heavily, she grabbed her trusty glaive, first making sure it did not stop to sprout some leaves at her, and stalked out of the Chamber.

"K-Kel?" Nealan of Queenscove was waiting outside the Chamber, along with Sir Raoul of Goldenlake and Alanna the Lioness. "What in blazes had happened with you?"

Kel shook herself off, bits and pieces of bread and butter flying in different directions, as well as drops of water. The three knights shielded themselves, as Kel glared at Neal.

"The Chamber of Secrets happened, you moron. And YOU!"

Neal whimpered all of a sudden.

"You did not see anything of it, Sir," he gulped as he dashed away from the Chamber.

Kel's eyes blazed with fury and she bolted after a certain green eyed knight, letting go a string of curses that would have made the Lioness proud.

A long distance away, Neal squawked in fear before dashing to find a safe spot.

"Damn, they all come demented out of there," Alanna the Lioness said with amusement. "I wonder what happened this them."

"You're not the only one, Alanna," Raoul chuckled, as sounds of Kel thrashing Neal reached the two knights' ears. "You're not the only one…"


End file.
